What Avatar: The Way of Water Tells Us About Our Planet
If you are anything like me, you have probably been seeing threads of Jake Sully edits on your For You Page lately. Avatar: The Way of Water, whether it is through your TikTok algorithm, or merely the fact that it is a creative cinematic original, has found its way to relentlessly remind you of its story.
The story that you remember probably goes something like this: Two lovers embark on a journey of parenthood and go to unmeasurable lengths to keep their loved ones safe. It highlights the beauty in inseparable bonds that creates a family—and the very reason as to why we choose to protect, sacrifice, and fight for the things we love.
But there’s more to this story than just romance. As ironic as it may seem coming from a science fiction film, the story of Avatar: The Way of Water is actually multifaceted with several allusions to the reality of our own planet—and the eerily similar battles that we face on Earth. The film blatantly depicts the persistent nature of human greed, its scope being naturally large as it opts to depict a whole new world. There’s really no argument that denies this as a foreshadowed consequence of our future reality. We have Elon Musk and a slowly expiring planet, right? Nothing of our greed or intentions are different in Pandora—people enact the mass destruction of ecosystems and commodifie species mercilessly.
As of now, the world has already lost one third of its forests, and in January 2023 alone, over a million hectares of forests have been burned and cut down. Species go extinct on a regular basis, and although it is a part of our natural world, an average of 137 of them go extinct per day due to human behaviour. Coastal cities like Miami and Jakarta are sinking—we won’t only lose the land but also the remnants of their culture and history. And speaking of water, our notorious fishing industry manages to make an appearance in the film, to show the interminable urge to commodify everything and to chase luxury, even if it means to completely disregard our ethical or moral values.
Perhaps this is another perspective of the story you should remember. This movie stands as the sixth highest grossing movie of all time. We are at a point at which we bat an eye to the attrition of our planet, which is happening as we speak. For the sake of our planet’s future, I encourage you to let Avatar: The Way of Water remind you of how beautiful our world is—just as much as Pandora. Different cultures and species find significant solace in nature, and our planet is a home we must also fight to protect.
